I'm still a bit skeptical about EA offerings these days, but gotta give em credit for putting out a title that I'm still losing hours to so long after release. (And gotta give 'em a kick in the nerts for immediately discontinuing said title.)

Latest Coach Trav career began in Miami. I wanted to start at the bottom, and the 1-15 'fins seemed a good place to start. I got a wild hair and wanted to see if I could sneak in a custom playbook built around the Wing-T. My thinking was ball control + Defense, Defense, Defense. Base sets are Wing-T, Near, 2-back Gun. Very heavy reliance on the run, play action, misdirection. In short, a whole lot of suck until I can completely rebuild the roster and teach it to everyone. REAL friendly to the careers of FBs and TEs.

On defense, I put together a 335 Mustang hybrid with a handful of nickel package zone blitzes.

In Miami, this was a dismal failure. "You have to remember this was a 1-15 team last year... 1-15," I said.

"You're fired," they said.

So, looking over my options, I landed in Baltimore. What they had in place seemed to be friendlier to my philosophies, at least on the defensive side of the ball. Having Rex Ryan in charge of my defense was sure to make it look good, at least.

We went 0-4 in preseason, as I played around with Troy Smith and another speedy rookie under center. Horrifically bad offense. Before the season, the owner encouraged me to name as the starter.... Brian Brohm. Huh.

It is now week four, and we are sitting at 1-2, and much better than our record. Both loses on the road, by three points, and one in overtime. The defense is certainly nasty, but the personnel doesn't fit the offense. Three great WRs, a solid balanced QB...and decimation of injury among my FBs and TEs. We're 29th in the league in rushing with our power run game.

I traded Todd Heap to the Seahawks, even though he is a great TE... Too injury-prone for how I was using him. Instead I have George Wrightster dropping passes for me. Heath Evans is starting at FB.

At the moment it looks like our defense will keep us in most games. We lost 20-17 to Pitt at Heinz, so I'm encouraged. The defense is pretty vicious -- Lewis, Tommie Harris, Reed, McAlister, 1st round monster DE, Ngata, Ghoulston, Steltz. I wouldn't want to play against our D. Our offense has managed 110 rushing yards in 3 games.

The one thing that killed the game for me was the insane stupidity of these players. It takes them so long to grasp the playbook that play calling just killed me. Even the plays that they did know, they'd still mess up.

I ended up just simming the game and just playing it that way. I love the game. I just wish the players were more adept and running the plays I called instead of playing like the Seahawks.

One play sticking out in my mind was a busted screen. Brohm got chased out of the pocket, rolled to the screen side... the linemen took off. Right before he got to the line of scrimmage, he whirled and fired a bullet to the halfback...ten yards directly behind him. After an impressive display of juking himself the wrong way, McGahee was tackled for an 8 yard loss on the pass.

I frequently want to kill players while teaching a new system. The defense hasn't had as much trouble, but they've got Rex Ryan yelling at them.

I'm playing what turned into a Lions franchise at the moment. This team is cursed. I come in for the 2009 offseason to find a whole six draft picks available for the next two years. Huh. Okay. I turn those into what SHOULD be long term solutions at RB, QB, and RE.

Before the first preseason game, the RB was immediately injured in such a way that his future potential dropped below 85. The QB is rocking the clipboard behind a stopgap veteran signed to a 1 year deal -- Jeff Garcia. The RE (Ovr: 90, Pot: 95, Spd: 94. Dayaaaaam) is pretty much single-handedly playing defense.

Team is 1-3, and we only have 3 draft picks for 2010 and are sitting at about 5 million in cap room.

At least I got to personally fire Millen, replacing him with Mickey Loomis.

I think HC09 is the one with Dungy on the cover, but I could be mistaken -- Might be other versions? Anyway, it's pretty extensive front office stuff... The scouting/draft process alone are worth the price of admission (These days, about ten bucks, heh).

The game itself uses a Madden engine, but you just call plays. Well, you MIGHT call plays. If you hire an offensive coordinator that demands playbook control, HE'LL call the plays and you'll make other gametime decisions.

I think it's extremely well done, though a bit bug-ridden at times. Also, it's absolutely a niche offering that apparently didn't garner enough of a market.

Just make sure to download any patches that are still available. It shipped with some gamekillers -- Though I think the 360 version was a touch more stable out of the box.

Edit to Add: Detroit fired me after one stupid season. I'm bringing in an all new offense AND an all new defense. Play learning and continuity and scheme are close to everything (So much so that I signed a few of my former Chiefs rejects to the Detroit team for play knowledge). One season simply does not cut it for an entire rebuild. I mean, we were a 4-12 team last year... 4-12.

Latched on to a job with the 2-14 Falcons. Drafted a 95 potential HB with the 1st overall pick of the 2010 draft. Time to run 'im into the dirt.

Yeah the game's pretty fun- I forget the specifics, but last time I played, I managed to win two Superbowls with the Hawks. At that point in time though, I was at least several years into the franchise, and then I remember getting into some salary cap trouble towards maybe my sixth year. Had to let a couple Pro Bowl level players head into free agency. One of them was a beast of a DE, that went by "Willie Burns." Willie Burns was an athletic phenom, with hall of fame potential haha. Had the speed of a cheetah, with the strength of an ox. And the size of an elephant, it was pretty funny actually.

I just restarted again after 6 months off..(got frustrated when I got fired by the Seahawks after getting to 2 Superbowls in 3 season, because of too much "dead money" ). Took over the Detroit Lions.. its a challenge... lost the first 3 games of the season, but after getting more of the playbook down we are now 4-3.

“If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give them a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.”

For 2011, Coach Trav finds himself in Miami. Coach Trav is getting sick of getting fired every year, and seriously considering going back to the college game after getting canned by the Falcons. Said Falcons went 4-12, which is obviously not what one wants... But, again, you take a 2-14 team and bring in a completely new offense, completely new defense, completely new roster rebuild of a crap team... You aren't going to win the Super Bowl in the first year! Stupid owners.

Anyway, Miami. Things are going to look a -bit- different, though I don't have high hopes. In order to sign Linehan as offensive coordinator, I had to concede his offensive philosophy. So, apparently Miami will be running the spread. Considering that my playbook has a lot of full backfield misdirection play action stuff going on, I'm really not sure how compatable this situation is on the surface.

Andre Woodson is holding down the QB position under a 2 million dollar RFA tender. The Dolphins are more or less in cap hell, and I wasn't able to sign any free agents of note. The draft went well, and we ended up with a potential star CB and a steal of a HB in the later rounds. The latter enabled us to trade away Ronnie Brown and free up some cap (Though not much this year with the dead cap hit).

Off to an 0-3 start, sigh. I'm already planning to blame Linehan when I beg for my job at the end of the season.

Sorry Lol guys i have to stay away from this game its like crack. Very sad to see 09 is the last year they made it as man there is some serious fun. I did the Seahawks of course. And learned that to get my coordinators instead of hirering big name guys. I would promote the Position coaches. Reset is my friend sorry just the best way of not getting canned repetedly. Scored the year i fired timmay and hired the Gm from Tennesse. Was a huge upgrade at the position and made it so quality players where much easyer to sign for lower and drafting a breeze. I myself run a west coast/air correl attack just cause i like bombing it.

The cap hits are a b*tch. But it is interesting how they set it up. The players are dumb as shit which is annoying but look at is from a coaches prespective and mostly it is the way it is in rl. That said the hawks for my D are a 3-4 just because of the LB's i have and DT well good ones are hard to find.

And yes it was soooooooooo gratiflying to fired ruskell. If there are any tips or tricks pls let me know. As this game has made me lose sleep and question how good i am at madden. Hell of a game tho. Well worth the money i paid for the collector's addition to get both.

God Bless America and God Bless the SEATTLE SEAHAWKS - TEZ

Mike Bullene ‏@12thManM1ke 45m@TDESPN Though, you did say the other night you cannot win the SB riding a defense. Even though you are literally the poster child for that. --twittered back at dilfer after he tried to slam hawks fans.

Another Dolphins franchise... this time I actually didn't get immediately fired in the first year, as I took the Mighty Fins from 1-15 to 6-10. Then, I think I had a stupid because I actually didn't draft a QB in the famous 'Jack English Draft'. Well, that's not entirely true... I did draft Jake Scott in the 5th or 6th, and he turned out to be a solid contender for the QB of the Future.

I traded down to grab Mack Jackson, and damned if the dude isn't pushing for Defensive Player of the year. Halfway into the season he has over 50 tackles, 8 sacks, and 3 interceptions. He's a frickin' beast.

Other than that, the season is a disappointment at 3-5 to start. The boss is happy, and my approval rating is hanging out in the 80's, but it's looking like trying to stick with Beck for a year while training Scott up to take over was a mistake. I finally benched the dude at midseason after putting up a 9TD, 18Int first half.

The Flatt System this go-round is the Trav Flatt Spread 'n Press. This perverted-sounding system is based on the Michigan Spread offense and the 3-4/Pressure Nickel defense. Rob Ryan and Cam Cameron are the coordinators... Lot of struggle for control with Ryan, but the dude knows his defense so I'm pretty much letting him do his thing. Cameron, while a competent play-caller, isn't really suited for a spread passing attack so the offense has had some setbacks although our nonexistent run game has improved.

Desperately need a DT. Our starter at the moment is like a 71 overall.

Finished 7-9, somehow kept my job. Drafted a 94 OVR potential DT in the first round. Also, traded up for a mid-first round QB even though having a young 90 OVR potential under center. Luckily, nobody called for my head, and the starter in question is a level-headed personality so didn't have a meltdown over it.

Jake Scott, my 5th or 6th round sleeper starting QB, has a couple years left on his contract. Has a good arm, but does put a bit of a limit on our playcalling in the Spread Option because he's not particularly mobile. Enter one Darius Pryor. 95 OVR potential, 93 speed, 98 durability. AND he's got a better awareness cap than Scott.

He's probably going to sit on the bench for a year or two, though.

Meanwhile, the Fins are out of the gate with a bang. 4-1 to start. A few games into the season, I traded away our starting RB and our starting SS. Steltz at SS was in his last year on contract and had a very similar guy coming up behind him. Ronnie Brown was having an -excellent- year, and it pissed some folks off that I traded him for a third round pick.

Two weeks later, I'm thinking the fans have forgotten about that, as the dude taking over starting duties has 300 total yards and 4 TDs in those two weeks. (Most of it receiving, actually.)

On the down side... it's a mother to work your way into the playoffs when the Pats are in your division.

Since there is no real offseason..Im restarting this thread. In my last post in December I was talking about turning around the Lions..had gone 0-3..got back to 4-3.. then the rest of the season went to hell. Part of the problem is Im using a 3-3-5 defense which I selected on a whim and cant find a way of getting out of. Its not a bad base sometimes, but it cant be run all the time and so Im only slowing being able to get away from it as I steal plays from other teams.

I got the Lions to 6-10..but was fired. Im with the Dolphins now and the first thing I did was trade away a bunch of guys to stock up on draft picks. Ended up with 1 1st rounder, 1 second rounder, 4 3rd rounders, 1 5th round and 2 each in the 4th, 6th, and 7th. Just getting into pre-season now but my draft is turning out to be a mixed bag. The 1st rounder (MLB) and 2nd rounder (C) are going to be starts with 94 and 92 potential.. the 3rd round DT has a potential of 90 as well. Those are the only fully revealed ones so far...but its looking bad for the 3rd round RB who after 1 preseason games is showing his potential to be 71.. before the draft he was rated at a 85 with 79% scouting. Oops.

I had sort of retired the game..but with no offseason.. I had to do something footbally... hoping I can do well with the Dolphins but I had to hire a really crappy OC..

“If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give them a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.”

Still ticks me off they never made a sequel to HC09. I haven't worked on a Franchise with it for a while, but it always finds its way back to the PS3 (Though I don't remember the 360 version being quite as buggy).

Was its niche really that small? It would seem it would be pretty easy to make new versions of it..even if just available in the online store..

The PS3 version is quite buggy.. Sammy straightened me out on one bug but it used to be that I wouldnt suffer an injury an entire season. And I still dont seem to have some of the options Ive seen you mention in posts Trav...

“If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give them a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.”

They came out with one big update that took care of almost all those major things that Trav already mentioned.

You should be able to adjust your defense if not during the season at least in the off-season.

The major tweak was that the game would run a play before the clock wound down (IE, a FG to win/tie the game rather than just lining up and letting the clock run out.)

I think the problem with this game is that they tried to sell/package it with Madden XX before you could buy the game by itself. So some people never gave it a chance even though it's 100x better in regards to the GM'ing of a team instead of the pathetic excuse that Madden has been trotting out every year.

I know the lead developer of HC was moved to the Madden team but I haven't seen any improvements to the franchise mode... but I've only bought 3 of the past 7 Maddens on the next-gen consoles.

When HC 06/7? (the one with the Chin on the cover) that was also released on the PC so I know that it's had a pretty faithful following and mod community support. It's really a shame they didn't do the same for as far as releasing it on PC.

I loved the GM'ing/franchise aspect but I couldn't stand the play-calling. I ended up simming all my games and still could go undefeated with the Seahawks three years in a row.

I mis -spoke (wrote?)) earlier..Im stuck with a crappy 4-2-5 base defense.. and can find no way to escape it. In the next offseason will try again..but cant even find a page where its an option.. I have sort of compensated for it by plugging in quality SSs and playing them in the box a lot.

I like the game play except in the 2 minute drill.. and I think an interesting feature they missed out on was "audibles".. it would be cool if one of the wild cards and variables was how much lee way you gave your QB to audible, and how effective they were at it.

I cant stand Madden...well..I havent played it in years... You would think it would be rather cheap to make new HCs..

“If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give them a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.”